Christopher Clive Froome, OBE (born 20 May 1985) is a British professional road racing cyclist for UCI ProTeamTeam Sky, who competed for Kenya until 2008. A three-time winner of the Tour de France, and three-time runner-up in the Vuelta a España, he is seen as one of the most successful stage-racing riders of the recent era.[5] Froome, who was brought up in Kenya and South Africa, has ridden under a British licence since 2008 on the basis that both his parents are British.

In 2007, at the age of 22, Froome turned professional with Team Konica Minolta. He moved to Europe to further his career, joining team Barloworld. In 2010 he moved to Team Sky and has become one of the team's key cyclists. Froome made his breakthrough as a Grand Tour contender during the 2011 Vuelta a España where he finished second overall.

Early life and amateur career

Froome was born on 20 May 1985 in Nairobi, Kenya,[3] the youngest of three boys to mother Jane and father Clive, a former hockey player who represented England at under-19 level.[6] His mother's parents had emigrated from Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England to Kenya to run a crop farm.[5][7][8] Froome's two older brothers, Jonathan and Jeremy, went to Rugby School in Warwickshire, England.[6] When Froome was 13, his mother took him to his first organised bike race, a charity race that he won despite being knocked from his bike by his mother. There he met professional cyclist David Kinjah, who became Froome's mentor and training partner.[6][9][10][11]

Froome claimed his first professional win in March 2009, with the second stage of the Giro del Capo in Durbanville, South Africa, attacking a ten-strong breakaway with 30km (18.6mi) and finishing four minutes ahead.[35] He then participated in the Giro d'Italia, in which he came 36th overall, and seventh young rider classification.[36] In July he won a minor one day race, Anatomic Jock Race, in Barberton South Africa.[37] In September 2009, it was announced that he was to join British cycling team, Team Sky, for the 2010 season.[38]

2011: Breakthrough

The early highlights of Froome's 2011 season were top fifteen finishes in the Vuelta a Castilla y León and the Tour de Romandie. Froome had a mixed Tour de Suisse, riding with the lead group on some mountain stages yet losing time on others, and finishing ninth in the final time trial.[44]

Froome entered the Vuelta a España as the main domestique for Bradley Wiggins in the mountains. After being inseparable from Wiggins throughout the first week, he gained credit for his ride in stage nine, helping close down an attack on the final climb and finishing in fifth place, three seconds behind Wiggins, leaving both in the top 20 overall.[45] The following day in stage ten, however, Froome out-rode Wiggins to finish second in the time-trial behind HTC–Highroad's Tony Martin and to take an unexpected lead in the race. Froome averaged 405 watts over 56 minutes in this time-trial, proving himself as a strong time-trialist.[46][47] During stage eleven he helped his team to neutralise some attacks but soon found himself unable to follow the main group. However, he managed to hang onto second place in the general classification.[48]

After losing the jersey to Wiggins on stage eleven, Froome continued to ride in support of his leader. On stage fourteen, he helped to drop rivals including Liquigas–Cannondale rider Vincenzo Nibali and Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha) on the final climb. Wiggins credited his lead to Froome, in a stage which also saw Froome rise back up to second in the standings.[49] The tough stage fifteen which ended on the Alto de L'Angliru saw Froome lead the chase to stage winner, Juan José Cobo of Geox–TMC, who took the overall lead at the end of the day. Froome proved stronger than Wiggins, finishing ahead of him in fourth place but forty-eight seconds behind Cobo, to retain second overall.[50]

On stage seventeen, Froome attacked Cobo 1km (0.6mi) from the summit finish, but Cobo fought back, catching Froome in the final 300metres, only for Froome to attack again to win the stage and arrive one second in front of Cobo.[51] As a result of time bonuses, Froome reduced Cobo's lead to thirteen seconds. Froome was unable to reduce Cobo's lead any further and finished second overall in the Vuelta, equalling Robert Millar's second places in the 1985 and 1986 editions of the Vuelta and the 1987 Giro d'Italia, as the best finish by a British rider in the Vuelta and the highest finish by a British rider in a Grand Tour.[52]

There was an inconsistency about him. The question wasn't why he was good, the question was why we'd only seen glimpses. Why isn't he like that all the time? When the illness was discovered, retrospectively, it made a lot of sense."

After the Vuelta it was revealed Froome had suffered throughout the year from the parasitic disease bilharzia (schistosomiasis), having been diagnosed in 2010.[54] It has since been speculated that Froome may have had the parasitic infection for much of his adult life and during his early cycling career.[6][55] The discovery and subsequent treatment of the illness has been used to explain Froome's rapid rise to form during 2011.[14][53] On 16 September 2011, Froome signed a new three-year contract with Sky.[56] He was part of the Great Britain team that helped Mark Cavendish win the world road race championship.[57] In October, Froome finished third overall in the first edition of the Tour of Beijing, 26 seconds behind overall winner, Tony Martin.[58]

2012: Super-domestique

The early part of Froome's 2012 season was wrecked by illness. He withdrew from the Volta ao Algarve with a severe chest infection, and blood tests showed his bilharzia parasites had returned.[54][59] In March, while on a training ride, Froome collided with a 72-year-old pedestrian.[60] He returned to racing in May, for the Tour de Romandie, where he helped Wiggins win the race overall,[61] before participating in a training camp on Mount Teide in Tenerife with several of his teammates.[62]

Froome was selected for the Sky squad for the Tour de France. After placing 11th in the prologue,[63] he suffered a punctured tyre 9mi (14.5km) from the end of stage one and lost over a minute to overall leader Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack–Nissan).[64] On stage three, Froome was involved in a crash on the hill-top finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer, and was sent flying into safety barriers, but was unharmed and was given the same finishing time as the winner, Peter Sagan of Liquigas–Cannondale.[65] On stage seven finishing atop the Category 1 climb to La Planche des Belles Filles, he protected his leader Wiggins and was part of a small group that came in sight of the finish line. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) attacked, Froome jumped on his wheel and won the stage with an advantage of two seconds over his leader and Evans. Froome took the lead in the mountains classification.[66] With that operation, he took the polka dot jersey, but lost it to Fredrik Kessiakoff of Astana the very next day.[67] Froome finished second to Wiggins on stage nine, an individual time trial, and moved up to third overall.[68]

On stage eleven to La Toussuire, Froome rolled all day in the mountains in front of the pack or near it, setting the pace for his leader Wiggins, but he was forced to take two rests during the flatter, faster sections, dropping in behind Wiggins' group, leaving Wiggins out in front. Froome recovered well, however, and in a surprising event, due to what appear to be confused team orders, he attacked the remaining group on the last climb, just as Wiggins was easing off after the hard chase to catch Nibali 4km (2.5mi) away from the finish line. He subsequently received the order from his team manager to hold back and wait for yellow jersey Wiggins. He finished third of the stage after a late burst of speed.[69] For his efforts in assisting Wiggins, Froome was lauded in the media as a super-domestique.[70] On stage seventeen, Froome and Wiggins finished second and third respectively on the final mountain stage to further cement their general classification positions,[71] although Froome repeatedly waited for Wiggins on the final climb, costing him the chance of winning the stage.[72] On stage nineteen, a time trial, Froome finished second to Wiggins, mirroring the overall standings.[73] Wiggins went on to win the tour with Froome second, becoming the first two British riders to make the podium of the Tour de France in its 109-year history (Although Wiggins finished fourth in the 2009 Tour de France he was later promoted to third after Lance Armstrong's results were annulled in 2012).[74]

Froome, along with Sky teammates Wiggins, Cavendish and Ian Stannard, as well as Millar (Garmin–Sharp) were selected for Team GB's road race at the Olympic Games.[75] Froome and Wiggins also contested in the time trial.[76] Froome won bronze in the time trial, with teammate Wiggins taking gold.[77] Froome was selected as Team Sky's leader for the Vuelta a España, where he aimed to go one better than 2011 and win his first Grand Tour.[78] He lay third after the first mountain finish on stage three,[79] and moved up to second on stage four after leader Alejandro Valverde crashed, losing 55 seconds to the chasing group.[80] Froome moved down to third during the stage-eleven time trial sixteen seconds off leader Rodriguez.[81] He lost another twenty-three seconds on stage twelve, putting him 51 seconds down.[82] He struggled through the rest of the second half of the race. He ended up fourth overall, finishing over ten minutes behind the race winner, Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank).[83]

2013: First Tour de France victory

Froome's 2013 season began at the Tour of Oman, where he took the race lead on stage four, finishing second to Rodríguez on the summit finish of Jebel Akhdar.[2] Froome then won the following stage to extend his lead, out-sprinting Contador and Rodríguez.[84] He finished the race taking the overall classification, his first stage race win of his career, 27 seconds ahead of Contador, with Cadel Evans twelve seconds further back. He also won the points classification.[85]

Froome returned to action, and to the top step of the rostrum, in the Critérium International. After finishing fourth in the short second-stage time trial, he powered away on the last climb to pass team mate Richie Porte and win the third and final stage. In so doing he overtook Porte in the general classification.[88]

In late April, Froome won the 7.5km (4.7mi)prologue of the Tour de Romandie in Le Châble, Switzerland, taking the leader's jersey, with a six-second gap over Andrew Talansky of Garmin–Sharp.[89] He remained in the yellow leader's jersey throughout the entire race, increasing his advantage over his rivals to almost a minute with a strong performance in the penultimate queen stage. Near the end of that stage, after losing his support riders in the peloton, Froome gave solo chase to breakaway Team Katusha rider Simon Špilak and after catching him, worked with the Slovenian to maintain and extend their lead on the peloton and improve their general classification standings. Špilak won the stage, which catapulted him into second place in the overall, with Froome on his wheel in second.[90][91] In the final individual time trial stage Froome took third place, increasing his lead and winning his third race of the season.[92]

Froome's final warm up race before the Tour de France, for which he was favourite, was the Critérium du Dauphiné at the beginning of June.[93] He sat second overall behind Garmin–Sharp's Rohan Dennis after coming third in the time trial on stage four.[94] Froome won stage five after countering a late attack by Contador, to take the race lead by 52 seconds over teammate Porte.[95] Froome helped Porte solidify his second place on stage seven,[96] and on stage eight the pair rode away from their rivals on the final climb, with only Talansky (Garmin–Sharp) able to follow. Froome took second on the stage behind Alessandro De Marchi of Cannondale, who had attacked earlier, to secure overall victory, with Porte completing a one-two, 58 seconds back. This was Froome's fourth major stage race victory of the season, out of the five he had entered.[97][98]

Froome's Tour de France got off to a nervy start as he crashed in the neutral zone of the first stage on the isle of Corsica, but he was unharmed. Also, he avoided going down in the large crash towards the end of the stage.[99] After staying out of trouble for the rest of the first week, Froome won stage eight, the first mountain stage of the race, finishing on Ax 3 Domaines, by launching an attack after teammates Peter Kennaugh and Porte had brought back an earlier attack by Movistar Team's Nairo Quintana, and distanced most of Froome's rivals. Froome's winning margin on the stage was 51 seconds over Porte, and 85 seconds to Valverde (Movistar Team) in third. This gave Froome the overall lead in the Tour for the first time and the lead in the mountains classification.[100][101] On the following stage, however, Froome was left isolated as no teammates were able to follow repeated attacks early in the stage by Garmin–Sharp, Movistar Team and Saxo–Tinkoff riders. Despite being without any team support for most of the stage, Froome was able to defend his lead by following several attacks by Quintana and Valverde.[102] Froome then finished second in the individual time trial on the twelfth stage, twelve seconds behind Tony Martin, to put further time into all of his rivals.[103] However, on stage thirteen Saxo-Tinkoff caused a split in the peloton due to strong crosswinds, which Froome missed. Saxo–Tinkoff's Contador and Roman Kreuziger, and Laurens ten Dam and Bauke Mollema of Belkin Pro Cycling all made the selection and took 69 seconds out of Froome's lead, although Valverde lost over ten minutes and slipped out of contention.[104]

Froome won stage fifteen, which finished on Mont Ventoux. Kennaugh and Porte dropped all of the leading contenders except Contador on the early part of the climb, before Froome surged clear of Contador with 7km (4.3mi) remaining and caught Quintana, who had attacked earlier in the climb. The pair worked together to put time into their rivals, before Froome dropped Quintana with 1.2km (0.7mi) remaining and soloed to the finish. This gave Froome a lead of four minutes and fourteen seconds over Mollema in second place, with Contador a further eleven seconds back. Froome also regained the lead in the mountains classification.[105][106] He won the stage seventeen time trial, finishing the 32km (20mi) course from Embrun to Chorges in 51 minutes 33 seconds, with Contador coming in nine seconds behind him, in second place.[107] Froome defended his lead during the Alpine stages, extending his overall lead as Mollema and Contador dropped back.[108]

Froome won the general classification on 21 July with a final time of 83 hours, 56 minutes and 40 seconds; he was 4 minutes and 20 seconds ahead of second-placed Quintana. He was also King of the Mountains for six stages; however, he ultimately finished second to Quintana in that classification.[109] Froome's overall win and stage victories in the Tour win put him at the top of the UCI World Tour ranking, with 587, ahead of Sagan on 409.[110] Partly because the 2013 Tour was the first since Lance Armstrong's admission of doping, such questions were asked of Froome. He insisted that he and his team were clean and stated that the questioning saddened him.[111] Froome was drug tested 19 times during the Tour[109] and Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford offered the World Anti-Doping Agency all performance data they had on Froome as evidence.[112]

In October Froome was named winner of the prestigious Vélo d'Or award for the best rider of the year.[113]

2014: Defending champion

As defending champion for the first time, Froome started his 2014 season by again winning the Tour of Oman.[114] After some minor illnesses and back problems, which meant he missed Tirreno–Adriatico,[115] his next stage race was the Tour de Romandie, again as defending champion, which he won by 28 seconds ahead of Špilak, with the two riders placing first and second in that race for the second consecutive year.[116] He also won the final stage of the race, an 18.5km (11.5mi) individual time trial, finishing a second faster than three-time time trial world champion Martin. To celebrate the Tour de France moving from Britain to France in July, Froome rode a bicycle through the Channel Tunnel, becoming the first solo rider to do so and one of few cyclists ever to have made the journey.[117] The Crossing took under an hour at a top speed of 40mph— faster than most cross-channel ferries.[118]

Froome crashed out on the fifth stage of the Tour de France after falling three times over two days, putting an end to his defence of his Tour de France crown.[119] He came back in time to duel with Alberto Contador on the Vuelta a España, being very competitive in the mountains but losing some time on the first individual time trial.[120] Before the last stage, a short (10km) flat time trial, Froome was in second place with a deficit of 97 seconds on the Spaniard.[121] He finally finished second.[122]

2015: Second Tour de France victory

Froome decided to begin his 2015 racing season in February at the Ruta del Sol in Spain, after winning the previous two years of the Tour of Oman. He was joined there by Contador, both riders competing in this race for the first time. Having lost eight seconds to Contador in the first day's individual time trial,[123] Froome ceded even more time to him on the third stage, when the Spaniard broke away from the peloton during the uphill finish to win the stage. Now 27 seconds behind Contador, with only one mountain stage remaining, Froome seemed likely to end up second.[124] But on the penultimate fourth stage, which had a steep uphill finish, Team Sky worked hard and dropped all of Contador's Tinkoff-Saxo teammates as the leaders reached the final climb. After some punchy moves by his support riders, Froome began a solo attack. For a short time Contador was able to follow, but he soon fell away. Froome won the stage and was able to open a 29-second gap on second-place Contador by the finish line, enough to overcome his deficit and take the overall race lead by two seconds.[125] The final fifth stage was relatively flat, with no likely chance for Contador to make up his deficit, allowing Froome to collect his first stage race victory since May 2014.[126][127] This was the third year in a row that Froome won his season opener stage race.[127] For a second year in a row, Froome did not start Tirreno–Adriatico, due to a chest infection.[115] He participated in the La Flèche Wallonne but crashed badly, ruling him out of a victory. Still, after some time to regain his wits, he remounted and soldiered on to finish 123rd, at 12:19.[128] He later participated in the Tour de Romandie in hopes of winning it for the third year in a row, but had to settle for third place in the general classification after winner Ilnur Zakarin and second-place Simon Spilak, both of Team Katusha.[129]

In June, he was in full preparation for the Tour de France as he participated to the Critérium du Dauphiné. He won stage seven, the queen stage, thanks to two consecutive attacks on the last climb of the day, one to shed the leading group and another one to get rid of Tejay van Garderen, who had resisted the first one.[130] On the stage, he repeated the exploit of winning solo while putting enough time into van Garderen to win the overall classification as well.[131]

Froome entered the Tour de France as one of the favourites for the overall win. After a strong performance on the Mur de Huy Froome took over the race lead by one second from Tony Martin,[132] although he subsequently lost the jersey to Martin on stage four to Cambrai.[133] Froome refused to wear the yellow jersey after Tony Martin abandoned the race while still leading due to a broken collar bone sustained on stage six.[134] Froome then received the yellow jersey at the end of the seventh stage by virtue of being in second place overall. During the evening of the first rest day of the Tour, it emerged that the team had had some of Froome's data files hacked and released onto the internet.[135] As the Tour entered the second week of racing stage ten saw the first mountains stage, the summit finish of La Pierre Saint-Martin, where Froome would go on to take the stage win, putting significant time into his general classification rivals.[136] During the remainder of the race the team faced intense scrutiny regarding their dominant performances; Porte was punched in the ribs by a spectator in the Pyrenees,[137] and Froome had urine thrown at him by another spectator.[138] Much of the blame for the poor spectator behaviour has been levelled at the French press for 'irresponsible' reporting.[139] Team Sky then released some of Froome's power data from stage ten in an attempt to calm claims of blood or mechanical doping.[140][141] Froome maintained his lead during the final week's Alpine mountain stages, although he lost 32 seconds to Quintana, who had emerged as his principal rival, on the penultimate mountain stage to La Toussuire, and another 86 seconds on the final summit finish on Alpe d'Huez, giving him a lead of 72 seconds over Quintana in the general classification. In addition to winning the race overall he clinched the mountains classification, becoming the first British rider to be crowned the Tour's King of the Mountains since Robert Millar in 1984.[142] He was also the sixth rider to take the yellow and polka-dot jerseys in the same year and the first to do so since Eddy Merckx in 1970.[143]

In August, Froome confirmed that he would follow up his Tour win by riding in the Vuelta a España,[144] becoming the first Tour winner to take on the Vuelta in the same year since Carlos Sastre in 2008.[145] Froome lost time on his rivals on the first summit finishes, though he gained back some time on the summit finish of stage nine.[146] Stage eleven was a mountainous stage in Andorra that Froome had described as "the toughest Grand Tour stage I’ve ever done".[147] He crashed into a wooden barrier on the approach to the first climb of the day; he continued to the end of the stage, though he lost significant time on all his rivals. The following morning, an MRI scan revealed that he had broken his foot in the crash and he withdrew from the Vuelta.[148]

2016: Third Tour de France victory

Before the 2016 season, Sky announced that Froome would attempt an unprecedented triple goal: the Tour, as well as the time trial and road race at the Olympics.[149] Froome started the season early, competing in the 2016 Herald Sun Tour in Australia (a race in which he had finished fourth in 2008). The Herald Sun Tour consisted of a short individual time trial prologue, followed by four stages. On the last stage, which culminated in a triple climb of Arthurs Seat and a summit finish, Froome broke away in a solo attack on the third and final ascent, and opened up a sufficient gap on the field to secure his first 2016 victory, along with the King of the Mountains award.[150]

Froome's next racing appearance was at the Volta a Catalunya in late March, where he finished eighth overall.[151] He subsequently competed at the Tour de Romandie, which brought mixed results. On the second stage, he punctured on a climb 20km from the end and finished 17 minutes down on stage winner and new race leader Nairo Quintana.[152] However, on stage four, the queen stage, he and Tejay van Garderen attacked from the bunch to join the day's original breakaway; the pair then rode away on the final climb, and Froome distanced van Garderen with 7.4km to go, holding on to win the stage with a four-second lead over the leader's group.[153]

On Stage 8 of the 2016 Tour de France, Froome attacked on the descent of the Col de Peyresourde and held off the leading group of GC contenders to take a solo victory in Bagnères-de-Luchon. By doing so, Froome took the Yellow Jersey, leading the race by 16 seconds over Adam Yates (Orica–BikeExchange).[155] Following the stage, Froome received a fine of 200 Swiss Francs for elbowing a spectator in the face who had run alongside him during the ascent of the Col de Peyresourde.[156] On Stage 12, Froome collided with Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema and a motorbike after spectators on the road forced the motorbike to stop. Porte and Mollema continued riding, while Froome ditched his bike and continued on foot until receiving a replacement bike from his team car. He finished the race 1 minute and 40 seconds behind Mollema, but was awarded the same time as Mollema after a jury decision, and retained the yellow jersey.[157]
Froome went on to claim his third Tour de France victory on 24 July 2016, and became Britain’s first ever three-time winner of the race.[158]

He followed his Tour win with a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, during the Men's Time Trial event,[159] repeating his bronze medal success from London 2012.

After the Olympics he was named in the start list for the 2016 Vuelta a España, during which he helped the team win the opening team time trial and later won stage 11 on Peña Cabarga, the site of his first Grand Tour victory in 2011. He lost over 2 and a half minutes on stage 15 when rivals Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador attacked together from kilometre 10 and blew the race apart, isolating him from his teammates. However, Froome continued to fight on and managed to gain back nearly all he had lost in a dominant victory on the stage 19 individual time trial to Calp. He finished the Vuelta in second overall, only 1:23 back of Quintana, earning his second Grand Tour podium of the season.

Personal life

Froome met Michelle Cound, a South African of Welsh origin, through South African rider Daryl Impey in 2009. Froome and Cound moved to Monaco together in 2011 and got engaged in March 2013.[160][161] The couple married in November 2014,[162] and on 14 December 2015 had their first child, a son named Kellan.[163] Froome dedicated his 2013 Tour de France win to his mother, who died of cancer five weeks before his Tour debut in 2008.[32][109]

Physiology

Since winning his first Tour de France title in 2013, doubts over Froome's performances were raised by various experts, including former Festina coach Antoine Vayer. These allegations were based mainly on his sudden transformation from a relatively unknown rider to a grand tour winner, following his breakthrough performance in 2011 Vuelta. After his dominant showing in the first mountain stage of 2015 Tour, the suspicions increased even further. In a call to answer these questions, Froome promised to undergo independent physiological testing soon after finishing the Tour. The test, arranged by Froome himself, took place shortly before the start of the Vuelta, on 17 August 2015, in the GlaxoSmithKline Human Performance lab in London. Several tests were carried to determine his maximum sustainable power for 20–40 minutes (threshold power), level of maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max) and his peak power. Froome's peak power was measured at 525 W; his peak 20–40 minute power, at 419 W, corresponds to 79.8 percent of the maximum. At his current weight of 69.9kg (154lb) (of which 9.8% was body fat) at the time of test, this corresponds to a figures of 7.51 and 5.98 W/kg respectively. His maximum oxygen uptake was measured at 84.6 ml/kg/min. At the time, he was reportedly almost 3kg (6.6lb) heavier compared to his Tour weight of 67kg (148lb). Using this number, the VO2 max figure would translate to approximately 88.2 ml/kg/min. He also released results from a previous test, carried out in 2007 while being part of the UCI development programme. The 2007 test measured his peak power at 540 W, the threshold power at 420 W and the maximum oxygen uptake of 80.2 ml/kg/min, at a weight of 75.6kg (167lb).[165]